2020:A Class Dismissed

About this series

They were born in the weeks and months after 9/11 and are graduating in the year of a crippling pandemic. Maine’s high school seniors have lived through some of the most profound change our country has ever witnessed.

With nearly every Maine high school cancelling in-class lessons for the remainder of the school year, these young adults are missing out on cornerstone experiences that ease the transition from being a child to being an adult.

No prom. No senior sports season. No yearbook signatures. No final play or performance. No awards dinner. No senior prank. No senior ditch day.

For so many, no final farewell.

With so much focus on the death, despair and financial pain that’s accompanied the spread of the coronavirus, Pine Tree Watch felt it was important to capture the stories of a senior class that has been prematurely dismissed.

Between now and graduation day in mid-June, Pine Tree Watch will speak to seniors from as many Maine high schools as possible to tell the story of Maine’s Class of 2020 and how these soon-to-be graduates are dealing with the unexpected developments that come with a global pandemic and a disrupted senior year.

Interviews and videos by Bailey Beltramo.Photos by Jennifer Hoffer and contributed by the students.

If you’re a high school senior in Maine — or you know a high school senior in Maine — who would like to participate in this project, please reach out to us here.

The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Facts matter. Our nonprofit, nonpartisan news service holds Maine state government and institutions accountable. Our journalists use data- and document-based reporting to produce stories that have an impact.